Monthly Archives: April 2011

On completion of two years in Pune, Sayaji Hotels Ltd is planning to invest Rupees100 crore in Pune. . “This expansion will be completed by September 2012
with a total investment of Rs 100 crore” said, Sajid Dhanani, MD, Sayaji Hotels Ltd. The group is planning to expand its operations with a sports and cultural club, restaurant, mall, meeting and conference facilities and service apartments.

“The demand for hotels and restaurants is increasing at a good rate in Pune. Dhanani’s estimate is 22 per cent as far as hotel business is concerned. Though supply of rooms in the last two-three years has increased considerably, the restaurant business is on the rise far more speedily.

Moreover, Sayaji Hotels further plans to influence the brand image it has created in Pune by exploring in other locations like Bangalore, Chennai and Gurgaon wherein majority of its customers come from automobile, Information Technology and Engineering industries. It also has plans to expand Barbeque Nation brand from current 18 divisions in the country to around 33 divisions by the end of the year. The new Barbeque Nation restaurants will be opened in majorly in metropolitan seven cities such as Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Pune. The group’s turnover was roughly around Rupees 190 crore for the financial year 2010-11.

NEW DELHI: One of the pushiest area of South Delhi Vasant Kunj, take a stroll into Sector E and you get a chill down your spine. Rows and rows of vacant flats give a stare at you. It’s weird, haunting and unsettling. But this ghost township is part of the greedy DDA’s prestigious 2008 housing scheme, for which millions of Delhiites had put their luck and money at stake.

It’s a sprawling area housing nearly 800 DDA flats, but it’s lonely and isolated out there. Only 50 families are still hanging on to what they once thought was their dream home. So here’s comes a note of caution. If you have bagged an allotment in the 2010 lucky draw at Vasant Kunj, you could also be a victim of DDA’s disregard. Astonishingly, the agency has failed to provide even the basic amenities of water and electricity even 3 years after the allotment of the flats.

One of the residents, Harish Chand, is still battling it out in his infirm flat at Pocket 2 in Sector E. He has nobody next door, because most allottees have never turned up to live there. But most of these flats have been robed, electric wires hang dangerously and meters have all been stolen. Burglars have a field day in this area and dirt spills over from open drains. Taps run dry and Harish Chand has no option but to buy drinking water. The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) has made it clear; it does not have water to provide. “When we complained to DDA about lack of water, we were directly told that DJB cannot supply water. We have been surviving on water from tankers and tube wells. We are barely surviving as just 50-odd families live here. But we still have to
buy drinking water. Pipelines are broken, there’s no impression of maintenance, DDA had just refused to act on it,” said Harish Chand. His suffering began much earlier. Harish and many others had to wait till April 2010 to take possession after a scam hit the DDA housing scheme in 2008.

Manoj Jain, who lives in Punjabi Bagh in his parental house, said that someone was illegally tapping into his meter and stealing power. “I keep coming back to check my flat, the lock outside my flat has been broken and my electricity meter has been tampered. I realized this when I got an overblown power bill this month,” said Jain. There is also no approach road leading to these flats. “I moved into my flat a month back and there are trucks parked there which creates a security threat,” said Rajesh Kayala.

Now, DDA is claiming that construction of the approach road will start in a month’s time. “The tenders have been proposed also floating tenders to provide RO water to the flats. We are now sending water tankers to the area,” said a DDA official.

State Bank of India (SBI) will put to an end to its puzzled home loan schemes by the end of April 2011. The interest rates offered on its home loans will now be recalled by floating interest rate schemes, which are comparable with those offered by other commercial banks and housing finance companies. All loans from May 1 will draw an interest rate of 9.5-10.25 per cent, depending on the loan amount. Loans up to Rs 30 lakh will be available at 9.5 per cent (one percentage point above their base rate). Loans in the Rs 30-75 lakh range will be charged 9.75 per cent (125 basis points above the base rate). And, those above Rs 75 lakh will be charged 10.25 per cent (175 basis points above the base rate). Though, these rates would move in line with the changes in the bank’s base rate that is reviewed every quarter.

Earlier, the RBI had asked banks to stop giving teaser loan rates, since it believed such loans would blow the asset quality of the bank’s home loan portfolio. Puzzled loans offer advances at a comparatively lower rate of interest for the first few years, after which rates were re-set at higher rates. SBI is the last one to discontinue such special loans. Under its SBI Easy Home Loan and SBI Advantage Home Loan products, one could get loans for 8-8.75 per cent in the first three years. After the third year, the rates would get reset at the current floating rate structure. At 8.75 per cent, a 20-year-old loan on Rs 30 lakh would come to Rs 884 a lakh. At 9.5 per cent, you would now be paying Rs 932 a lakh.

Those who already have SBI’s puzzled home loans and are still in the initial three years, the old rates remain applicable. The new rates will only apply to new applicants. Among the housing finance companies, LIC Housing Finance is still offering a fixed interest rate of 9.9-10 percent for the first five years and, thereafter, the existing rates will apply. A quick calculation on apnaloan.com showed that the average rate for a 20-year period still works out in SBI’s favor. The average rate for SBI was 9.5 percent, while that for LIC Housing was 10.5 percent for the same period.

Rising real estate rates may have resulted in a spiky decline in property sales, but it has lead to a good growth in rental value in Mumbai and other metropolitan cities in the country. Mumbai and the outskirts of the city have seen an 11% growth in rental value in the past year. The figure for Bangalore, Pune and Delhi has shot up by 13%, 11% and 9% respectively.

Unexpectedly, rental value in South Mumbai, one of the most preferred locations to stay in the city, has seen a drop. The Worli residential market saw a 21.31% drop last year, while the figure for Prabhadevi, Parel and Bandra (West) fell by 18%, 12% and 11.57%. “The rent in South Mumbai had gone up to the roof. It is still unaffordable. So, people are shifting towards the suburbs and outskirt of the city,” a real estate expert said. However, the rental value in the suburbs too has shot up radically. Borivli (West) witnessed a record of 42.25% growth, while the rates have shot up by 35.04% in Powai, 28.32% in Malad and 20.40% in Kandivli (East). The Mumbai metropolitan region too has seen a rise in rental value. The figure for Mira Road and Seawoods shot up by 39.28% and 36.36% respectively in the past year.

A real estate expert featured the rise in rental value to exorbitant property rates in Mumbai. “People prefer to stay in rented homes instead of buying a house. Also, there is a huge arrival of people in the city. As a result, there is a huge demand for rented homes,” a study says. Government data compiled by the stamp duty department also shows that there is a 35% of rise in the number of lease agreements being signed in the city.

DLF Brand, a subordinate of DLF Ltd, has come up with its
presence in fashion retail trade by collaborating with the Spanish Brand Mango.
This happened since the brand announced its two other new retail trends,
including a multi-brand showroom chain, of its own. The DLF group company had
also launched, for the first time, its own brand, Pure Home and Living, a premier home decor and furnishing brand of retail showrooms. The first of the showroom opened in Delhi two months back competing with Future Group’s Home Town and Landmark Group’s Home Centre.

Mango, the Spanish Fashion Brand, with over 1,700 showrooms worldwide, decided to sign up DLF as partner to fast track its expansion after nearly a decade of operations in India. The Spanish Brand of clothing has been majorly in partnership with Major Brands through which it released almost 15 stores. DLF will be leading the new showrooms openings. DLF, which has already opened Mango’s travel retail showroom at the new terminal (T3) of New Delhi airport and plans to add another six more stores in the current year, said DLF Brands CFO Dipak Agarwal.

“The major collaborations are now looking to grow assertively here in India having been around for so long. The company wants to concentrate on brand-building
and designate the expansion to its franchisee,” Agarwal added. DLF also operates other universal fashion names such as Armani, DKNY, Ferragamo and Mothercare.

DLF is set to launch a multi-brand retail store chain of international fashion brands, the company official said. These showrooms will also store brands that are not part of DLF Brands and will be competing with the high-end retail formats like The Collective, a unit of Aditya Birla Nuvo.

“The multi-brand showrooms will be like a premium discount showrooms keeping high-end fashion labels but at lower price, as there is an opportunity in the market for such showrooms which are highly internationally popular. These stores will be done up gracefully and won’t look like the second stores or factory outlets which are available at present,” Agarwal said. The first of the multi-brand showroom is spread across 10,000 sq. ft which will open in Gurgaon.

DLF group spreads across 16,000 to 18,000 sq. ft is looking to open more 4-5 stores in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune by end of this year.

The Income Tax department is looking into all the alleged deals of real estate to check the contribution of black money and tax dodging of such dealings in the last few years. The process starts in New Delhi and eventually would move to other metros.

“Analysis of the Property deals will start with New Delhi and appropriate actions would be taken as required”, Sudhir Chandra, Chairman CBDT said. In the past few years after IT department had received complaints about the black money involvment, IT department has raided many real estate developers, including the major ones.

IT officials says that they had uncovered lot of black money from most of the builders. A new process is being levied which would keep an eye on sources of funding for developers projects which includes individuals as well as property dealers.

Approx 40-60 percent of the cash componenet is unaccounted on papers. This helps builders to avaoid tax on cash incomes. The deaprtment is focusing very closely more on dealers rather than small ones. The amount of assets detained by the IT department had been more than doubled in the last four years, while the number of raids had came down. IT department searched 529 groups in 2006-07. The number of searches dropped to 454 in 2007-08, 429 in 2008-09 and 409 in 2009-10.

Over seven lakh of people had rowed up to try their luck to have one’s own house in Delhi and a majority of them were disappointed. But for the 16,118 people it was a short of miracle, who now finally have an address of their own. Though DDA had published the list in newspapers and also uploaded it on its website, many turned up at Vikas Sadan on Tuesday to ensure that it wasn’t a fantasy.

“Suresh Kumar Kher who works at the airport got lucky as he was allotted a LIG flat in Narela. He with his wife, Sudha, and son went to Vikas Sadan as they wanted to be doubly sure of having got the flat. “We had checked the DDA website in the morning and I had asked a friend also to double check it. My wife’s prayers have been answered. We live in rented accommodation at INA now and can’t believe we finally have a house of our own in the city. This is the first time they applied got lucky.

Kameshwar Nath Mahato, came to Delhi from Jharkhand 15 years back. He works as a supervisor at United Coffee House. He was in suspense till the morning as he couldn’t access the DDA website because of the heavy traffic. “The flat is in the name of my wife, Anita Kumar Mahato, and I have worked very hard for this. I, my wife and my two-year-old daughter are going to see our LIG flat in Rohini’s Sector-28. The house is affordable, about Rs 13 lakh, ” Said Kameshwar Nath.

Vikas, had come to check on behalf of his brother, Sandeep Kumar, said the family was going to Sirsa to pray at a Gurdwara and thank god for the good luck granted on
them “We live on rent in Karol Bagh but now I can tell my friends that I have a house of my own. Also, we brothers can finally think of marriage now that we have a house,” said Vikas, whose brother has been allotted an LIG flat in Narela.

Mahesh Kumar had been provoked by his girlfriend and his father to take a chance. “I’ve never been so lucky and wasn’t anticipating much from this scheme. I applied at the last minute and didn’t even look at the paper in the morning. I am thrilled,” he said.

Ranjan Chopra didn’t bother to go to the DDA headquarters. He lives in Munirka and was working on Tuesday. Now, the proud owner of an HIG Flat in Vasant Kunj, he said. The entire family will now be shifting in a big house. “It’s because of my faith in god and the blessings of parents that I have been able to get it,” he says.

DLF is India’s biggest real estate developer which has decides to develop Infopark project worth of Rupees 1000-crore which would be spreaded over 54 acres in all the phases. Firstly, they intend to develop one-tenth of the plot (5.4 acres) in first phase, for which they had made the building plan and had forwarded for the approval of the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA). In this context,” DLF has submitted a revised building plan for the Infopark project which is underscrutiny of BDA”.

After following the de-notification of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ), DLF had thought to develop the Infopark project under the STPI (Software Technology Parks of India) scheme.

DLF had made certain changes in its Infopark project which is to be built over 54 acres in the Infocity region of the city. DLF – real estate masters are interested on setting aside a greater area for non-processing facilities like shopping malls and multiplexes. This project which had to come up in three phases, comprises of an IT area, a luxury hotel, a chain of retails, service apartments and recreational facilities with a total built-up space of about 5.5 million sq ft. For the luxury hotel, DLF had tied up with Hilton which is a famous international hotel chain. For the first phase, DLF had committed an investment of Rupees 300 crores for developing an IT workspace of international standards which would be a built-up area of 5.7 lakh sq ft. This phase is scheduled to be operational within 18 months to 02 years after commencement of construction of work. The Infopark project may generate direct and indirect job opportunities for over 40,000 people in sectors like IT and ITes (IT enabled services), retail and hospitality.

TATA Housing Development, a subsidiary of Tata Group is entering into its home market in Mumbai by taking up project of redeveloping of old building complexes. The developer has started operations pan India which has been restricted to building townships and residential complexes adjoining the Greater Mumbai.

Brotin Banerjee, Managing Director & CEO, TATA Housing Development said, “we expect to start doing the premium housing project of redevelopment of the societies in the western suburbs of Mumbai such as Andheri and Bandra. However, in such redevelopment projects societies normally they call for bids, which make it quite competitive. This was told to Financial Chronicle.

The company hopes that its reputation for ethical behavior would get preference even if its bid is lower than others as these societies have had bad experience when dealt with lesser known realtors.” Unlike certain other developers we cannot cut corners or engage in illegal activities as these would violate the TATA code of conduct”, so it would be safer for the societies to go with developers who don’t bend rules and give a better quality housing product said Banerjee.

“These projects would help us ensure that premium development brings in around 60 per cent of our revenues this year even though they will constitute only around 40 per cent of the number of units being constructed,” said Banerjee. The company currently has 45-50 million square feet of area under development. This is split across value and premium housing respectively and includes around four to five million square feet of commercial and office development.

The company expects the first such development projects to be signed up over the next 6-9 months. “Under the Smart Value Homes and New Haven brands itself we have 15,000 homes under construction,” he added.

By the end of this fiscal year the company hopes to have operations in Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Khandala, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chandigarh and the National Capital region.